Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had a series of unfortunate events at today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race at Talladega. After getting back on track after a hard hit, Earnhardt’s steering wheel came off the hub. No big deal; Dale’s got hands.

Sadly, Dale Jr.’s race came to an end shortly afterwards, when his car was shoved into the wall by Carl Edwards’ out of control car.

UPDATE: Earnhardt tweeted that the loose wall was the result of him being in a hurry, not a mechanical failure:

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Regardless, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell said in an interview with Sirius XM NASCAR Radio that the series is investigating the loose wheel, if for no other reason than this is really dangerous at speed.